On 06/20/2011 09:44 AM, Aaron Konstam wrote: > There is a paradigm shift going from Gnome2 to Gnome3 which I have not > seen discussed on this list. > > Gnome2 is totally mouse oriented. Everything you want to do you do by > moving the mouse and clicking. Obviously I am rerring to Gnome2 itself > not applications. > > However, in Gnome3 a large fraction of actions have been moved to the > keyboard. > > This is the same difference as that of creating documents in Word and > Latex. And this change in paradigm used to be a hot topic. > > Does anyone out there have an opinion pro or con about this shift that > will no doubt be continued into the future with Gnome? I too noted the mouse deprecation in Gnome 3. Besides alienating a large group of users who simply prefer using the mouse over the keyboard when there is a choice, there is a second group also hurt by it -- people with an impairment in one hand. I find the mouse offers the most efficient use when doing screen-wide activities -- I only switch to using the key- board when entering large amounts of text. Because I only use one hand, excessive switching between mouse and keyboard activities is very ineffecient and aggravating. The poor support for mouse operations in Gnome 3 has probably reduced my efficiency in window management activities by 80% or more. The biggest problem ISTM, and an over-arching one, is a design philosophy that seems to be, "we have no need for user preferences because we are going to get the interface right." The problem is that no one size fits all. Trying to come up with a single interface that is optimal on everything from cell phones to high-def, multi-headed workstations seems a fool's errand. One size that is equally usable by mouse preferers's or keyboard preferer's...one size that works for word-oriented people and visually-oriented people... If possible (and I doubt it), Gnome 3 is not it. To cater to different uses and users requires different way of accomplishing the same task, and different ways of displaying results. That is, provide the user with preferences and options. Imposing the set of preferences that work for a relatively small, interacting set of developers on the much wider real world is bound to fail. And, yes, I know there is customization via extensions. The only reason I am still using Gnome 3 is the wonderful extension at http://intgat.tigress.co.uk/rmy/extensions/index.html But extensions have problems. The author of the above extension says that he expects it to break with Gnome3 updates. Extensions are a separate piece of software that has to tracked, updated, re-installed. Extensions don't come with the same quality expectations that the base software has. Extension writers get new interests. Extensions often don't have the same access to the base software as the base software it self and can be limited in functionality because of it. So would be far better if functionality like this were integrated into Gnome 3, to be optionally activated by user preferences. -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
